Today, there are various situations where ice is served to a multitude of individuals in public venues. The primary commercial venue focuses on situations where a vendor hand-delivers a disposable paper or plastic glass or cup with ice to a customer. The vendor then distributes or sells a liquid or fluid, such as a bottle of water, a container or can of a beverage, such as a carbonated soft drink or a non-carbonated drink such as a sports drink, ice tea, juice, an alcoholic drink, a non-alcoholic drink, a liquid mixer to which alcohol can be added, etc. In many of these venues, the consumer does not have access to an ice machine. For example, during a flight on a commercial airliner, a flight attendant typically offers each passenger a beverage. Many such drinks, especially soft drinks, are customarily served cold. Either the beverage has been refrigerated and/or it is served with a glass or cup filled with ice. When a passenger selects a particular drink, the flight attendant will usually take a plastic cup and fill it with several ice cubes and then pour the requested beverage into the cup. The flight attendant will then hand the cup to the passenger. Sometimes, the flight attendant will also give the passenger the remainder of the bottle or can of beverage so that the passenger can refill their cup at a later time. The most time-consuming part of this entire process is getting the ice out of a relatively large plastic bag, usually a ten pound bag of ice, and depositing several ice cubes into each cup. Furthermore, the large plastic bag of ice is usually torn open and does not include a resealable feature. Therefore, there is no easy way to reseal the partially used bag of ice. In addition, the ice in the large open bag can become contaminated before, during or after transfer of some of the ice cubes to individual cups. This presents a significant health risk to the remaining passengers who may receive ice from the large contaminated bag of ice. Lastly, any unused ice in the large open bag usually has to be disposed of since it is not convenient to save it for a subsequent flight which may take off several hours later.
There are also situations where one or more persons may desire to distribute a small number of liquid drinks to a specific group where only a small quantity of ice is needed. For example, at a tailgate party before a professional football game, a person or a couple may host a tailgate party with a small number of their friends. A cooler is usually present filled with ice cubes and a variety of liquid drinks, such as bottled water, soft drinks, beer, wine, wine coolers, etc. If a guest wishes to add ice to his or her glass, mug or cup prior to adding a beverage, then a separate container or bag of ice is needed since the ice cubes stored in the cooler cannot be used for this purpose. Typically, the ice cubes stored in the cooler have become contaminated by the beverage containers placed in it as well as by other people reaching their hands into the cooler to retrieve a beverage.
Currently, applicant is not aware of any small, individual pouches or bags of ice that are commercially available for individual use and consumption. If such a product was commercially available, it would satisfy a present need and would allow ice to be distributed in a safer and healthier fashion. Should ice in the form of ice cubes, ice chunks, ice pieces, ice nuggets, ice blocks, ice flakes, ice pebbles, crushed ice, shaved ice, ice particles, ice lumps, etc. be available in individual size, pre-packaged flexible containers, one could provide a limited quantity of ice for a beverage in a cost effective, efficient and timely manner.
Now a pre-packaged, flexible container of ice and air has been invented which is capable of providing an individual serving of ice to a given person.